In Babies and more We have warned on various occasions about the danger of furniture and televisions for children, if they are not anchored to the wall. Children have an innate curiosity and great strength and dexterity that allows them to climb and climb furniture, putting themselves at risk of falling or worse, of staying crushed under them, if they tip over.
Now IKEA has decided to issue an urgent alert, as we read in DailyMail, after three children have died to get knock down the known drawers of the manufacturer.
The drawers of the MALM range
The three incidents happened with the same type of drawers, known MALM (I have one of them, although not the model in the photo). In 2014, two children died and recently a third party, and given this situation, IKEA has decided to re-notify parents of how dangerous it can be to put these relatively tall furniture, with many drawers and with weight on them, without fixing the wall.
And is that children get to open the drawers and do not have enough reason to think that the mere fact of opening them all can cause the drawer to tip over, or that if they have little weight, that they put in one of the drawers can cause the same effect.
The investigation about the death of Ted McGee
It happened in February of this same year, when Ted, a 22-month-old Minnesota boy, died after being trapped under a 6 drawer MALM chest of drawers. The mother explained that the boy was taking a nap and that she went every 20 minutes to see if everything was going well, when in one of the checks she found her son already under the chest of drawers. He didn't hear her fall, and if the boy screamed or said something, she didn't find out.
After this event, the same IKEA initiated the necessary investigation and contributed everything required to the US authorities to do the same.
Already in 2014, as we have said, a child died after a chest of drawers fell on him and was caught between it and the bed, and another 23-month-old suffered the same end when one of three drawers fell on him. Last year it was reported 14 more accidents for the same reason, although without regretting the death of any child.
IKEA decided to add more notices in the instructions of your furniture warning of the risk of falling and in the boxes he introduced the necessary elements to be able to fix the furniture to the wall and thus eliminate the risk completely. Surely on more than one occasion you have seen this drawing in the furniture assembly instructions:
However, Ted McGee's parents have claimed that they were not aware of this alert and were not aware of the risk of furniture falling. From IKEA they have sent their condolences to the family and have placed themselves at their service and that of the authorities to help in whatever is necessary with the investigation.
Also, as we have explained, they warn again about the MALM drawers, which are in more than 27 million homes, so that parents know of the danger they entail, and not because of a manufacturing defect, but because it is imperative to fix them to the wall if there are children at home that can make improper use of them.
